Books and most important a somehow grumpy cat

#Bookreview ‘Pontifex Maximus-Now the End begins’ by Damian North #TuesdayBookBlog

Today I am reviewing ‘Pontifex Maximus-Now the End begins’ by Damian North

Blurb (from Amazon) :

What if evil convinced the world that it was good?

As the world waits for the Pope to die, an ancient prophecy is about to be fulfilled. Unaware they are living in the End of Times, the world fails to see that everything is in place for the rise of the Antichrist. This book is a Vatican / Political Thriller which is rooted in conspiracy within the heart of the Vatican.

Did I like it?

Complicated to say. The overall theme (Pope and Catholic Church) is one of my guilty pleasures. Some things made me smile a bit (female US president, female director of CIA). The writing is OK, you want to know more but then …

What I didn’t like

Attention possible spoiler alert. You can’t build a connection with someone. They are just not surviving. The book starts with a priest in Israel who gets killed after several pages (spoiler: or not). Then you follow an American bishop for long parts of the book. Who then gets killed too. You follow a bit the US government, included in the conspiracy, most of them just following orders and not caring what they are doing except one. But this one just has a very small role in the book. It’s only book 1 of a planned series of 3 books. Let’s hope all the loose ends are tied in the remaining 2 books. It ends with a new pope. And this is really a cliff-hanger ending. New pope book 1 finished. I was just sitting and asking myself. And?

Would I recommend it?

Again, something very complicated. As a standalone, NO. As part 1 of a series, why not? 13 out of 20 points (mostly with the hope that there is a solution in the upcoming books of the series).